The report is a collaboration between Oxfam America and the School of Geography at Clark University, Worcester MA. It tackles the crucial topic of the overlap between mining, oil and gas extraction and agricultural land and water. It takes two prime instances of a steep increase in the expansion of concessions and output: Peru and Ghana. For each it displays in map form the increase in overlap between concessions on the one hand and arable land, water, protected areas and indigenous and other rural settlements on the other. Concessions are studied, not output, since concessions already increase uncertainty, disturbance and conflict.

The increased pressure is clearly demonstrated for both countries. For Peru, it is notable that the overlap is least for ‘protected areas’, suggesting that legislation has worked better in that area. For agricultural land and water the overlap, and especially the increase in the overlap, is serious, and the document is a tool for policy makers and analysts interested in conflict and its prevention. The overlap of land use and mining has increased notably in Peru’s coastal and central regions since 2002. Overlapping in Peru’s coast has risen from 2% in 1992 and 6% in 2002, to 21% in 2011. Another strong increase in overlap is that in the wet tropical forest of east and north-east Peru, between oil and gas concessions and lands reserved for native communities.

As the authors conclude, “[t]hese visualizations give a sense of what is and is not valued in de facto national land planning systems”.

The report is available at http://www.oxfamamerica.org/static/media/files/Ghana-Peru_Report-Final-post-to-web-comp_1.pdf